Jeffrey Hertzberg; Zoe Francois

Does the thought of making your own homemade bread terrify you? Do you still have a dusty, unused bread machine in your kitchen somewhere with the broken food processor? Fear not—Jeffrey Hertzberg and Zöe François have come up with a bread book containing recipes even the most Neanderthal of bakers can pull off. Filled with instructions for making things like pizza crust, spinach feta bread, and even chocolate-filled brioche, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day uses unique recipes that take the fear out of baking: no kneading, no complicated "starter," simple ingredients. Hertzberg (a physician) and François (a pastry chef and baker at the Culinary Institute of America) took a moment from their busy schedules to chat with City Pages.

City Pages: So, can you tell me a little bit about how you two came about this project, and what made you bread enthusiasts?

Jeffrey Hertzberg: Ive just fooled around with baking as an amateur for about 20 years. But I had no time for it, and so I started to do less and less. I stopped kneading the bread, I stopped making it every day, I stopped freezing it. Then I stumbled into a radio show, and an editor was listening as I described the technique of storing the dough. The editor heard it as a book proposal. Then I met Zöe.

Zöe François: I went to the Culinary Institute of America for pastry, and obviously breads were included in that. And in restaurants I would make the breads. But my real passion was pastry—though I had formal training in breads. Until I met Jeff, most of my passion was the sweet things, which I managed to squeeze into the book.

JH: It really rounded out the book!

CP: Can you talk about what each of you brought to this project of creating a user-friendly bread book? How did you collaborate together?

ZF: Jeff and I met at MacPhail, with our kids, and we started talking about bread and he finally shared his recipe.

JH: I think I made her sign in blood.

ZF: So we started collaborating instantly. We were working on the few recipes that he had, and once we started working on a proposal for the publisher, we started developing new recipes. And it was really a collaboration the whole way through—both in writing and recipes.

JH: It was the most fun project I have ever been involved in.

CP: You both use science in your day-jobs—Jeff obviously as a physician and Zöe as a pastry chef—were you surprised or anticipating that scientific knowledge would help in developing low-maintenance recipes?

JH: Id say yes and no—making bread is sort of an escape from all the numbers and precision. One of the first comical moments was when Zöe saw me doing a recipe without measuring the flour. But once we started getting serious, yeah—keeping records, collecting data, that all sort of fit. But you know, you dont have to be a doctor to do that.

ZF: In fact, the reason we wrote the book—we wanted to strip away all of that. So we really both had to fight against our training and think about whats going to be accessible for the home baker. We didnt want to get into the jargon and making everything precise. When we wrote it, we had to strip away all of what were both inclined to do.

CP:Bread is obviously a staple food, but do either of you ever get a sense that there's an intimidation factor in baking homemade bread?

JH: That's one of the themes of the book—we didn't want anyone to feel like they couldn't do it. A lot of the existing literature on bread makes it sound like you have to be a semi-pro, and this is the opposite of that, we hope.

ZF: I think the traditional methods of making bread are so labor-intensive and so precise. I do think people are intimidated, and if you don't do it right, the bread will be dry, or it won't rise. In traditional bread making, there is a lot to be intimidated about.

CP:What are some common mistakes beginners make? I know that you guys have a Q&A section on your website—do you ever get asked similar questions repeatedly?

JH: No ones emailed disasters yet. We get asked about whole wheat, people want to use whole grains.

ZF: People ask about yeast, and it really doesnt matter—granulated, rapid rise, take yeast. Different grains—people are really into whole grains right now.

CP:Do either of you have a favorite recipe in the book?

ZF: I love the panetonne. I just love all the dried fruits—it has lemon zest and honey, and its really fragrant.

CP:Any breads that make you wax nostalgic?

JH: My favorite is a roasted red pepper fougasse, which is a flatbread from province and it reminds me of a trip I was on with my wife. I cant really tell you that I remember eating it there, but it reminds me of it anyway. Its like the kind of thing we would have eaten there. Also, rye bread it reminds me of my grandmother, who is sort of why I got interested in bread. She thought bread was better than cake.